Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

re-conceived will go out of itself, and to open itself in its precious treasury. For in the re-conceived will to the birth of the light there is no source of anxiety, but only mere friendly desires ; for the glimpse riseth up out of the darkness in itself, and desireth the light ; and the desiring draweth the light into itself, and there the anguish becometh an exulting joy in itself, an humble cheerfulness, a pleasant habitation. For the re-conceived will in the light is impregnated, and its fruit in the body is virtue [or power], which the will desireth to generate, and to live therein ; and this desiring bringeth the fruit out of the impregnated will, [and presenteth it] before the will, and the will discovereth itself [glimmereth or shineth] in the fruit in an infinite pleasant number ; and there goeth forth, in the pleasant number, in the discovered [or manifested] will, the high benediction [or blessing], favour, loving kindness, pleasant inclination [or yielding pliableness], the taste of joy, the well-doing of meekness [or affability], and [further] what my pen cannot express. The mind would much rather be freed from vanitv, and live

•/ * therein without molestation or disturbance.

9. Now these two gates are in one another ; the nethermost goeth into the abyss, and the uppermost goeth into paradise ; and a third gate cometh to these two, out of the element with its four issues, and presseth in together with the fire, air, water, and earth ; and their kingdom is the

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1 Or mingle, sun and stars, which l qualify with the first will ;

and their desire is to be filled, to swell, and to be great. These draw into them, and fill the chamber of the deep, [viz.~] the free and naked will in the mind ; they bring the glimpse [or glance] of the stars into the gate of the mind, and qualify with the sharpness of the glimpse [or ffosh] ; they fill the broken gates of the darkness with flesh, and wrestle continually with the first will (from whence they are gone forth) for the kingdom [or dominion], and yield themselves up to the first will, as to their father, which willingly receiveth their region [or dominion]. For he is obscure and dark, and they are rough and sour, also bitter and cold ; and their life is a seething source of fire, wherewith they govern in the mind, in the gall, heart, lungs, and liver, and in all members [or parts] of the

2 the four whole body, and man is 2 their own ; the spirit elements' own.

which standeth in the flash bringeth the constellation into the tincture of its property, and infecteth the thoughts, according to the dominion of the stars ; they take the body and tame it, and bring their bitter roughness into it.

10. Now the gate of the light standeth between both these regions, as in one [only] centre enclosed with flesh, and it shineth in the darkness in itself, and it moveth towards the might of the darkness and fierceness, and sheddeth forth its rays, even unto the noise of the breaking through, from whence the gates of seeing, hearing, smelling,Ch. 16] THREEFOLD SPIRIT AND WILL 347 tasting, and feeling, go forth ; and when these gates apprehend the sweet, loving, and pleasant rays of the light, then they become most highly joyful, and run into their highest region into the heart (as into their right dwelling-house) into the essences of the spirit of the soul, which receiveth it with joy, and refresheth itself therein ; and there its sun springeth up (viz. the pleasant tincture in the l element of water) and by the sweet joy becometh blood. For all regions rejoice therein, and suppose that they have gotten the noble virgin again, whereas it is but her rays, as the sun shinetb upon the earth, from whence all essences of the earth rejoice, spring, grow, and blossom. Which is the cause that the tincture riseth up in all herbs and trees.